• Schwarzenegger terminates RFID skimming

    As RFID technology becomes more pervasive — people now use it to gain access to offices, properties, children’s nurseries, parking lots, and others areas — concerns have been growing about wireless “skimming” of the information on the RFID tags; California now bans the practice

  • SA police to buy mini-UAVs

    South Africa is host to the 2010 Soccer World Cup; in preparation, the SA police is buying mini-UAVs and integrating them into the force; the UAV — Kiwit — is carried in a suitcase, weighs 3.5 kg, and can be assembled by a single person in five minutes

  • China spying on Skype users

    Canadian researchers find that China engages in a massive surveillance campaign of users of Tom-Skype, a joint venture between Chinese mobile firm TOM Online and U.S.owened Skype; sensitive words such as “Tibet,” “Taiwan independence,” the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China are censored and logged

  • New nuclear watchdog created

    Anti-proliferation activists create the World Institute for Nuclear Security; funded with private and government funds, it will be headquartered in Vienna — next to the IAEA; it aims to facilitate sharing information to improve security at the world’s nuclear sites

  • Group tells FTC more RFID security guidance is needed

    As RFID technology proliferates, so do worries about its potential for violating people’s privacy. the Federal Trade Commission is charged with protecting consumers, and privacy advocates urge it to take a close look at RFID

  • U.S. military faces UAV shortage

    UAVs perform more and more intelligence and operation missions for the U.S. military — most recently over the northwest territory of Pakistan; one result of the growing demand for the drones is a drone bottleneck: General Atomics cannot keep up with demand

  • Age-guessing software has security, commercial applications

    Fighting Illini researchers develop an age-guessing software which can perform tasks such as security control and surveillance monitoring, and may also be used for electronic customer relationship management

  • GPS vulnerable to spoofing

    GPS technology is ubiquitous in civilian and military applications; Cornell University researchers raise uncomfortable questions by demonstrating how GPS navigation devices can be readliy duped by transmission of fake GPS signals that receivers accept as authentic ones

  • Briefly noted

    Aussie cyber security needs work… D.C. policy carry iPhones… Surveillance radar in Indonesian straits… HUD awards Iowa critical infrastructure funds…

  • Unmanned vehicles pilot shortage top priority for USAF

    It has taken some time, but Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has succeeded in pushing the U.S. Air Force toward an accelerated adoption of unmanned air systems; now the USAF needs hundreds of ground controllers to control them

  • USPS to deploy IPv6-capable video surveillance

    The U.S. Postal Services wants to increase security inside the more than 40,000 post offices around the country; it will install IPv6-capable CCTV systems — complying with the federal government encouragment of agnecies to migrate to IPv6

  • U.S. military to be offered flying hover bike

    An innovative Virginia company says its flying — or hovering — bike may be suitable for military missions; the machine offers vertical takeoff, range, and largely hands-off autopiloting

  • Push for nation-wide car tracking system in U.S.

    Two companies quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients; goal is to create a nation-wide car tracking system in the United States by using existing and newly installed red light cameras and speed cameras

  • Three companies compete for a long-endurance UAV concept

    DARPA’s quest for a long-endurance surveillance UAV — “long endurance” means staying in the air for five years — is not yet a reality, but it is no longer regarded as a pipe dream

  • Small robotic drones to join Air Force's arsenal

    Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, will add surveillance capabilities to the military and law enforcements; scientists have studied the flight of fruit flies, the crawling of insects, and the perching of birds as they look for ideas for smaller and more effective surveillance machines, and MAVs are one result of these studies